Winston, Mary Frances (Newson), 1869-1959

Mary Frances Winston was born 1889 in Forreston, Illinois, and graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1869. She taught at Downer College in Fox Lake, Wisconsin, 1889-1891, then received a fellowship to study mathematics at Bryn Mawr College, and she studied at the University of Chicago, 1892-1893. She went to Germany in 1893 to complete her studies at the University of Gottingen and became the first woman to receive a Ph.D in mathematics from a German University.

Mary Frances Winston (center) with Grace Chrisholm and Margaret Malloy, undated

She returned to the United States in 1896 where she taught high school in St. Joseph, Missouri for one year, then took a position as head of the Mathematics Department at Kansas State Agricultural College in Manhattan, Kansas. She held the position until 1900 when she left to marry Henry Byron Newson, a professor of mathematics at the University of Kansas. They had three children. When her husband died in 1910 she returned to work as an assistant professor of mathematics at Washburn College in Topeka in 1913. She left Washburn in 1921 and became professor of mathematics at Eureka College, where she stayed until her retirement in 1942. Mary Winston Newson died in 1959.

[More biographical info: http://www.agnesscott.edu/Lriddle/WOMEN/newson.htm ]

From the guide to the Mary Frances Winston Papers MS 213., 1889-1987, 1889-1940, (Sophia Smith Collection)

Teacher, mathematician, professor.

Winston graduated from University of Wisconsin in 1889 and taught at Downer College, 1889-91. She studied with a fellowship at Bryn Mawr, at University of Chicago, 1891-93, and at University of Gottingen, 1893-96, receiving a Ph. D in 1897, the first woman to receive a math Ph. D from a German university. She taught high school in St. Joseph, MO, 1896-97, after which she headed the Math Dept. at Kansas State Agricultural College, Manhattan, KS, 1897-1900. Married Henry Byron Newson, 1900. Taught at Washburn College, Topeka, KS, 1913-21, and headed the Math Dept. at Eureka College, Eureka, IL, 1921-42. Retired 1942.

From the description of Papers 1889-1940, 1987 1889-1940. (Smith College). WorldCat record id: 36815528